A Toronto police officer who was involved in a previous arrest of serial killer Bruce McArthur is set to appear before a disciplinary tribunal next week on charges of insubordination and neglect of duty.

Police will not comment on the exact nature of the charges against Sgt. Paul Gauthier, but a lawyer representing Gauthier is defending his client’s role in a 2016 incident in which McArthur was arrested but not charged.

McArthur, who pleaded guilty this week to eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of men with ties to Toronto’s gay village, had been interviewed by police a few years ago in a separate, unrelated incident.

The force’s professional standards unit launched an internal investigation related to the McArthur case in March 2018, two months after the self-employed landscaper was first charged with murder.